_GRUDGES_
"_Thou shalt not bear any grudge._"
--LEVITICUS xix. 11-18.
How searching is that demand upon the soul! My forgiveness of my brother
is to be complete. No sullenness is to remain, no sulky temper which so
easily gives birth to thunder and lightning. There is to be no painful
aloofness, no assumption of a superiority which rains contempt upon the
offender. When I forgive, I am not to carry any powder forward on the
journey. I am to empty out all my explosives, all my ammunition of anger
and revenge. I am not to "bear any grudge."
I cannot meet this demand. It is altogether beyond me. I might utter words
of forgiveness, but I cannot reveal a clear, bright, blue sky without a
touch of storm brewing anywhere. But the Lord of grace can do it for me.
He can change my weather. He can create a new climate. He can "renew a
right spirit within me," and in that holy atmosphere nothing shall live
which seeks to poison and destroy. Grudges shall die "like cloud-spots in
the dawn." Revenge, that awful creation of the unclean, feverish soul,
shall give place to goodwill, the strong genial presence which makes its
home in the new heart.